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Thad Matta (OSU's All Time Winningest Coach & 3x B1G COY, Butler HC)

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Dispatch

Matta has only one foot to stand on, but he's hoping for recovery

Thursday, December 13, 2007 3:23 AM
By michael arace




Sit down, put your feet flat on the floor and raise your right foot. Ohio State men's basketball coach Thad Matta can't do that, because his right foot is mostly dead. He hopes it'll be alive again within two years, but there are no guarantees. Matta, 40, might be dragging his right foot around, marking a perpetual boundary, for the rest of his life. "The most frustrating part is not being able to pick up my kids -- I can't pick them up and hold them," Matta said last week. "And I can't jump into practice. I was demonstrating a drill the other day, and David Lighty runs me over, and he thought I was done. Everything you do ? it's just a different lifestyle."



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osugrad21;1027081; said:
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I was so happy to see that the NCAA has such understanding people in their administration. They are such a understanding and compassionate organization.

Unfortunately and I have said this before, I believe that this problem could cause us to lose Thad much earlier than he would like to.
 
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Dispatch

His next job? In his dreams

Ohio State coach Thad Matta artfully dodged a question yesterday with a pretty funny response.
He was asked about Florida coach Billy Donovan?s dalliance with an NBA head coaching job last spring, during which he accepted and then rejected an offer from the Orlando Magic and stayed with the Gators.
?I wasn?t surprised that he would be a hot commodity,? Matta said when asked about it. ?I view him as a guy who would be an NBA-type coach. So it didn?t surprise me. But in the end, I know Billy pretty well and could see where his heart would bring him back to Florida.?
The follow-up question, of course, was if Matta views himself as ever being an NBA coach. He smiled.
?I want to be an NBA player,? he said. ?Once I get this back fixed and the nerve starts firing, watch out.?



Posted by Bob Baptist on December 22, 2007 12:49 PM | Permalink
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What's the Matta with people?

Sitting in one of my favorite restaurants a few weeks ago, I overheard a conversation concerning Thad Matta. Now in his fourth year as men's basketball coach at Ohio State, I had naively assumed he was doing a pretty good job.
Yet, four gentlemen - and I use the word loosely concerning the language that was used - interjected their opinions on the job Matta was doing. Of course it didn't help that the conversation ensued after the Buckeyes had lost three straight games, albeit against top 25 teams. Nonetheless, they felt it their duty to Matta-bash (I never thought to ask if they were from Michigan). Amongst their banter were statements surrounding Matta's inability to recruit (what?), his inability to start fast in the regular season (again, what?) and his lack of getting the most out of his players.

Begrudgingly, I continued to sit, folding my newspaper and crossword puzzle, while focusing on this unusually numbing conversation. Unfortunately, the language had its own color which made listening to it even more challenging, but the content was equally as lucid.
First, the notion that Matta is unable to recruit seemed ridiculous. As one of them put it, "he just can't seem to get the talent like those schools in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference)." OK, but I'm sure Oden, Conley, Jr., Cook, Diebler, Koufos and Lighty would beg to differ in reference to their abilities against the national scene. I'm also confident there are at least three NBA teams that would argue the ability of such talent, seeing as how Oden, Conley, and Cook all were drafted in the first round this summer. That's the first air-ball for my uninvited breakfast companions.

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Dispatch

January 2, 2008

Thad Matta, quarterback

Before leaving for Illinois this afternoon, Thad Matta mentioned that Jim Tressel asked him to say a few words to the football team before the Buckeyes left for the BCS title game in New Orleans.
What did Matta say?
?Just wished them luck,? he said.
No Knute Rockne speech?
?I can?t tell those guys anything,? he said with a smile.
?I told them why I quit playing football. I was laying in one of those cornfields in Illinois where I grew up and it was late October and the rain was coming inside my helmet. I said to myself at that point, ?I?m playing indoors from here on.? I told them, `I can?t tell you about toughness because I got out of it.??
Matta said it was his freshman year at Hoopeston-East Lynn High School, which is about 35 miles northeast of Champaign. The team?s nickname: Cornjerkers.
?I was a heck of a quarterback,? he said. ?The first pass I threw was for a touchdown to the other team.?
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Dispatch

January 20, 2008

Reflecting on timeouts

Coach Thad Matta said after the loss at Tennessee that he was OK with not having any timeouts left in the final six minutes of the game. Matta, of course, doesn?t always divulge publicly what he?s really thinking.
He did acknowledge, ?I?m usually a guy who has them all at the end of a game. I like to hang onto them as much as I can.?
Circumstances, however, conspired to tap his allotment of four Saturday.
He used the first with 12:46 left in the game after Tennessee scored six points in 12 seconds to erase a six-point Ohio State lead. The Volunteers applied their press after converting a three-point play, trapped David Lighty, stole his errant pass and made a three-point shot to tie the score at 49.
?With how they put runs on, I told myself before the game (that) if we had none (left) at halftime, I?m OK with that,? Matta said.
One down.
After a media timeout less than two minutes later, at 10:49, Jamar Butler could not inbound the ball against the Vols? press and called another timeout.
Two down.
Matta used another at 6:16 to try to stem a seven-point Tennessee run that had boosted the Volunteers? lead from three to 10 points in a minute and a half.
Three down.
Fifteen seconds later, Lighty slipped to the floor with the ball in his hands on the right wing and, rather than allow a Tennessee defender tie him up for a jump ball and possible change of possession, called time out.
Four down -- and out -- with 6:01 still left in the game.


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I don't know maybe it was my imagination but after the Tennessee game was over Matta limped more noticeably then I have ever seen him.

Also, I thought that he ignored Pearl after the game but wasn't sure. He could have been miffed about the Tennessee players coming over when he had his players around him late in the game while referees were checking on something. I don't know maybe it was just my imagination.
 
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LitlBuck;1072411; said:
I don't know maybe it was my imagination but after the Tennessee game was over Matta limped more noticeably then I have ever seen him.

Also, I thought that he ignored Pearl after the game but wasn't sure. He could have been miffed about the Tennessee players coming over when he had his players around him late in the game while referees were checking on something. I don't know maybe it was just my imagination.
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Saw Matta walking the other day thru the schott and he is walking better than he has for a while...
 
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